Cushioning crate or box liner



March 26, 1940. w w- 2,194,963

CUSHIONING GRATE OR BOX LINER Filed Aprl 12, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1INVENTOR William J White ATW March 26, 1940. w. J. WHlTE & 6

. CUSHIQNING GRATE OR BOX LINER Filed April 12, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 acATTO NEYS Patented Mar. 26, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT x OFFICE i p2,194,963 j CUSHIONING GRATE OR BOX LINER' William White', Portland, Oreg., assignor to Crown' Zellerba'ch Corporation, San Francisco, Calif.,a corporation of Nevada Application 'April 12, 1937, Serial No. 136,416

1 Claim.

My invention' relates particularly to cushioning liners usually employedfor lining-apple boxes,`in order to enable the fruit to be' packed rmlyin the box While preventing it from becomin'g bruise'd in the box byimpact in the handling and ship y ping of the box.

'The liners hereto'fore used for .this purpose are unsatisfactorybecause they are lack'ing in softness, fiexibility and elasticity.

One of the principal objects of my invention is to provide aninexpen'sive cushioning box liner in the form of a packing strip ofconvenient length, both faces of which constitute similar softcushion-like surfaces. I

It is customary in packing apples'to place a liner sheet at each side ofthe box, lapping the' ends of the sheets over each other at the' bottomof the box, and, after the box'is packe'd, to lap the top ends of the'liner sheet one overthe other' on top of the pack. slats are thenfastened to the top' of the box over the pack and fi'rmly pressed downwith' considerable force so as: 'to insure' a firmpack. 'I'nconsequence, by. the pressing and nailing down of the slats covering thetop of the box, the liner sheet is firmly clamped between the top layerof apples and the overlying slats of the cover, as diagrammaticallyillustrated in Fig. la, setting up the restrained force in the directionof the arrow m. When the box is opened to render the apples accessible,or for inspection of the pack, the sudden release of the stress imposedon the upper ends of the liner sheets frequently causes the liner tosplit adjacent the side edge of the box, asdiagrammatically illustratedby Fig. 2c, which represents, diagran'- matically, a vertical transversesection of abox with the cover slats unfastened, thus releas'ing theforce indicated by m and causing the 1iner-' still firmly clampedbetween the upper layer of apples and the overlying slats-to split underthe Stress imposed upon it, as indicated at lac. When this happens theappearance of the box is spoilt.

There is also danger in the ordinary handling of y the boxes beforebeing opened that the liner will split along the edges of the sides ofthe box adjacent the bulging cover. A particular object of my inventionis to provide a cus-hioning liner with ample inherent yield,accommodating such' liner of layers of thin sheets of paper crimped soas to have furrow-like puckers extending parallel in one direction, and.by binding said layers together by means of narrow binder-strips-firrows 'of the' crimps of said sheets.

sheets; said binde'rstrips ove'lappng the sheets andbeing Secured,andpreferably cemented, to

the edges of the outside sheets on both faces of the' pad, said stripsrunningtransversely to the By such constru'ction said binder strips holdthe crimps' in the sheets against `spreading adjacent the i binder'strips, and thus maintainthe pucker of said sheets,` butatthe same timeleave the body of the liner soft, flexible 'and elastic, so that thebody 'of the liner may yield and spread transversely of thecrimps andthus accom'modate the stresses mentioned without splitting.

A'further object of my invention is toprovide a .cushioning liner ofsome 'thickness., `'This I accomp'lish by making an` envelope, asitfwere,

consisting of' sheets-of 'crimped paper united at u their'edges'by"narrowwbinder-strips of greater tensile' strength, asabovedescribed, ,and placing in the envelope so produced zonlor moresimilar thin, crimp'edsheets.` The puckers of the' faces of the fillersheet (zo-acting withthose of the sheets constituting the envelope serveto hold the filler sheets against lateral displacement.

The details of construction in my'said cushioning elastic liner arehereinafter more 'fully Vertical apples in which my liner is section ofthe same box, butshowing the'cover slats unfastened from the box; i

` Fig.3 is a diagrammati'c vertical transverse section on the line 3-3of Fig. 1; and= Fig. 4 illustrates the crimped sheets and their binderstrips' separated in order to illustrate bet- ,ter the construction ofmy liner.

In thedrawings, a and b indicate two sheets of soft,creped paper whichconstitute the twoidentical soft faces of my liner, either face orsurface` of the liner being suitable for being placed in direct contactwith the fruit; In many instances I have 'found itsufficientto make' myliner merely of twolayers of creped paper.` Howeveywhen greatercushioning effect is required, the number of layers may be increased asdesired; 'The filler sheets are ;indicated by c. While filling, otherthan creped or crimped paper, may be.

placed between the two outer sheets of crimped paper constituting theenvelope of my filled liner, I do not consider this practical. Accordingto my experience all the filler sheets or layers should also be made ofsoft creped or crimped paper. It is important that the crimps or puckersd of all sheets should run parallel to each other and transve'sely tothe length of my liner. The puckers of the soft filler sheets alsofunction to hold these sheets from slipping out from between the outersheets of the liner.

The edging or binding strips e and f are folded over the edges of myliner and are secured in place by adhesive to the outer faces of myliner, as above described and illustrated by Fig. 2. These bindingstrips are narrow s'o as to cover only a small margin at the edges ofboth faces of the liner and thus impose no restriction on the elasticityof the remaining portions of the creped sheets. The binding stripsextend transversely to the furrows or puckers, and, being of stronger,heavier paper, provide desired strength for my liner and, furthermore,prevent my liner from being stretched longitudinally to such extent asto smooth out all the puckers or crimps. At the same time, since thebinding strips cover only the edges of the soft crimped paperconstituting the body of the liner, the uncovered surfaces remainfiexible and elastic. My liner is conveniently made up in any convenientwidth, and cut into desired lengths as used. If desired, it may be woundin rolls for shipment.

If desired, the creped paper constituting my liner may be impregnatedwith some preservetive such as is used for fruit wrappers. The narrowbinder strips of heavy paper are suitable also for printing, coloring`or other distinctive clecoration.

The word "crimped" as used in the specification is to be understood asdesignating any type of folds produced in the'sheet extending in onedirection, as for example, produced in' the customary "creping" of apaper sheet. i

As mentioned previously, Fig. la illustrates a sealed box of apples inwhich a liner is used. The liner, indicated by o, extends up next to theside g of the box and thence over on top of the fruit beneath the slatsh which constitute the box cover. The cover slats h are Secured to thetop of the end g' of the box by the nails z'. When the cover slats h arepulled loose from the ends g' of the box, as illustrated in Fig. 2a, inthe opening of the box, the released pressure indicated by the arrow m,causes the fruit to push the cover slats and` upper layer of the fruitupward, thus causing the liner o, which is held clamped between theslats and the fruit to be split along the topedge of the sides g of thebox, as indicated at Irc. With my liner, however, this could not occur,for the puckers in the crimped sheets permit the liner to Stretch, Withthe result that neither face-of the liner is split.

I claim:

A pack of the character described comprising a firm box-like bodycontaining the pack and a resilient cover firmly fastened to the top ofthe sides of the body and exerting pressure on the pack, a flexiblerectangular elongate cushion liner sheet enveloping the sides of thepack and extending beyond the tops of the sides of said body, said linersheet made up of a plurality of superimposed sheets of softly crimpedpaper, the crimps of each of said sheets extending transversely to itslength, and relatively narrow reinforcing binding strips firmly unitingsaid sheets along the edges of their long sides and retaining saidcrimps in said sheets, the ends of the liner sheet being lapped overeach other and over the pack under said cover, whereby, when the cove`is removed, the crimps of said sheets will permit the sheet to Stretchlengthwise and thus yield to and accommodate without being ruptured therefiex strain imposed upon said lapped ends of the liner sheet by thesudden release of the pressure of said cover on the pack.

i WILLIAM J. WHITE.

